Lextar reports sales increase

THIS LITTLE LIGHT:：A year-end pick-up in demand for notebook computers helped the company increase sales of LED backlight products

By Helen Ku / Staff reporter

Tue, Jan 07, 2014 - Page 13

Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子), which makes LED chips and lighting items, yesterday reported sales of NT$3.32 billion (US$109.9) for last quarter, up 41.27 percent from NT$2.35 billion a year ago, but down 10.02 percent from NT$3.69 billion in the previous quarter.

The company attributed its quarterly sales decline to seasonal factors, but said shipments of LED backlight products used in laptop computer screens would continue increasing this quarter after a pick-up in demand for notebooks last quarter.

In addition, increasing LED TV shipments are also expected to help raise Lextar’s LED chip sales this quarter, the company said.

For the whole of last year, the company’s sales grew 36.57 percent to a record high of NT$13.73 billion, the company said in a statement.

Lextar said it started supplying LED backlight products to a new South Korean client last quarter, adding that total sales of the company’s LED backlight products, specifically those used as smartphone flashlights, had increased and accounted for 15 percent of total sales last quarter.

Lextar forecast its LED lighting product sales would grow this year to account for 40 percent of the company’s total sales, up from a 30 percent share last year.

“Light module demand is strong in China and Europe, while LED light bulb demand is high in the US, China and Taiwan,” Lextar public relations official Fiona Chiu (邱培玲) yesterday said by telephone.

The figures took the company’s annual sales last year to NT$6.91 billion, down 8.39 percent from NT$7.55 billion in 2012, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

“As the average price of LED lighting products continues to fall in the US and Europe, global demand for LED lighting products is likely to continue growing this year,” Unity Opto investor relations officer Jacky Weng (翁聰智) said by telephone.

Weng said Unity Opto plans to ship 150,000 LED tubes, bulbs and other lighting products to markets including China this year.

With the LED backlight market reaching saturation point, Unity Opto forecast shipments of LED lighting products would for the first time ever exceed shipments of LED backlight products this year, Weng said.